


Dark and Stormy

by Caelum_Blue



Series: Azula Week 2020 [4]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Cousins, Family, Family Fluff, Gen, Rain, Storms, Thunder and Lightning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:34:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25165510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caelum_Blue/pseuds/Caelum_Blue
Summary: Written for Azula Week 2020. Prompt - Night.In which little Azula is very insistent, and Lu Ten can't say no to that face, even if it is an ungodly hour of night when all sensible Firebenders should be sleeping.
Relationships: Azula & Lu Ten
Series: Azula Week 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1818433
Comments: 32
Kudos: 127





	Dark and Stormy

**Author's Note:**

> Today we get FLUFF! And one of my deep-rooted headcanons: Azula absolutely adored Lu Ten, and he adored her right back. (Maybe this isn't a radical take these days, but back in the 00s/early 10s I seem to remember the few fics that involved Lu Ten and Azula having it that Azula hated him and was cool with him dying. *shrugs*
> 
> This takes place just over a year before the siege of Ba Sing Se starts, for reference.
> 
> And I absolutely wrote this during a series of thunderstorms. While burning a peony-scented candle and drinking blue tea. Because y'know, aesthetic. XD
> 
> Enjoy!

“Lu! Lu Lu Lu Lu Lu Lu  _ Lu!” _

“Ugh, what the - Zuli, kiddo, is that you -  _ mmph!” _

Azula had slammed her cousin’s bedchamber door open, run into the room, jumped onto his bed, and bellyflopped on top of the half-asleep teenager all in the space of about three seconds. “Lu!”

Lu Ten jerked the rest of the way awake, bolted upright in his bed, and reached out to grab the little girl and hold her up by the armpits. “Zuli? Are you okay? What’s wrong? Is there an assassin?” He looked around the dark room wildly, scanning for threats.

She giggled down at him.  _ “No! _ There’s a  _ thunderstorm!” _

Right on cue, a massive rumble rolled through the sky. Now that Lu Ten was listening, he could hear the rain falling hard outside. “Oh,” he said, relaxing a bit and setting her down in his lap. “Is that all?”

“Come on,” she said, tugging his arm. “We have to  _ watch!” _

“Kiddo,” Lu Ten yawned, “it is...I don’t even know what time it is. Too dark for Firebenders to be up, that’s for sure. You need to go back to sleep.”

She pouted up at him. “But you  _ promised! _ You said next time there was a thunderstorm we’d watch it together!”

He  _ had _ indeed promised, as the last time he’d been in the palace during a thunderstorm he had literally been on his way out the door to boot camp and Azula had nearly thrown a fit when he told her he had to go. “I did,” he agreed, “but I was kinda thinking we’d be doing that during  _ daylight - ” _

She stared up at him, small and expectant and wide-eyed and trusting and a  _ little brat who knew exactly how cute she was. _ He was being played. Lu Ten was completely aware that he was being played. He was eighteen and dealt with the Fire Court on a regular basis, he knew manipulation when he saw it.

That didn’t stop his heart from melting. Better to allow yourself to be manipulated by your adorable five-year-old cousin than some scheming politician.

And besides...he couldn’t not be there for his cousins. He was always willing to take the extra step, spend a little more time, be a little more patient. He wouldn’t say he was good with kids, exactly, but he was good with Zuko and Azula. He’d figured out how to be, because...well.

Aunt Ursa was the best, but Grandfather was too old to bother with children, and Father was often off on campaign, and Uncle Ozai was...not exactly parental material. He rarely involved himself in his children’s upbringing, and when he did, Lu Ten rather wished he wouldn’t. Maybe he’d be better at it in a few years - or a decade - when the kids were older and capable of holding something approximating adult conversation. Lu Ten wasn’t holding his breath, but he could give Uncle Ozai the benefit of the doubt. Grandpa had barely known what to do with Lu Ten until he’d been eleven, after all.

For now, though, Lu Ten was fully capable of blundering his way through every awkward, confusing, hilarious, and ridiculous situation he could with his cousins. At least they were old enough to use words now - that made interaction  _ so much easier. _

Except for the part where they could use words to craft a persuading and manipulative argument.

“You  _ said,” _ Azula said in a very small voice that made Lu Ten’s heart crack clean in two.

He sighed. “You’re right, I did. And what kind of prince would I be if I didn’t keep my word, huh?” With great mental anguish, he tossed off his blankets, stood up, scooped Azula into his arms, and made his way to the window. There was a nice wide window seat, and he settled onto it, sinking back against the comfy cushions and pulling his legs up so he could lounge against the wall. 

Azula slid down beside him and leaned so far over the window sill she almost fell out.

“Whoa, careful kiddo,” Lu Ten said, pulling her back, and then he added, “It’s fine, just us, back to your posts,” when a pair of guard-shaped shadows across the courtyard startled and moved forward. They complied silently, leaving Lu Ten and Azula as alone as royalty could ever truly be.

Azula didn’t lean outside again, but she stayed pressed up against the sill, staring up at the storm. The window was wide enough to comfortably lounge in, stretching all the way up from the seat to the ceiling in beautifully carved teak wood edged with latticework. The intricate geometry and sharp angles were a direct contrast to the view they framed - the night sky was filled with round, roiling clouds that swirled haphazardly overhead, lit for an instant by a far-off streak of lightning. The thunder followed in a low rumble, distant.

“Whoa,” Azula breathed, still staring. “How far away is it?”

“Hm?” Lu Ten asked. “Oh, sorry, forgot to count. We’ll do the next one, okay?”

“Okay.”

It was raining buckets out there, Lu Ten saw. The raindrops hit the courtyard flagstones hard, bouncing back up again in little splashes before settling into puddles. It was the start of the rainy season, and the weather was starting with a bang.

Literally.

“Lu!” Azula said, pointing excitedly at the streak of lightning that flashed through the clouds.

“One one thousand,” Lu Ten counted, “two one thousand - ”

“ - three one thousand,” Azula counted with him, “four one thousand, five one thousand, six one thousand, seven one thousand, eight one thousand, nine one thousand - ”

Thunder clapped overhead, much closer than before.

“How far away?” Azula asked eagerly.

“Almost two miles.”

She bounced a little. “How does it work again?”

“Hm,” Lu Ten said. He reached around her, held up his hands in front of her. “How many fingers do I have?”

She snorted. “Ten.”

“Right. So. How many groups of five can you fit in my ten fingers?” He wiggled his fingers pointedly.

Her brow furrowed, and she stared at his hands. Her little fingers idly poked over his. “...Two?”

“Two groups of five,” he agreed. “It takes five seconds for the sound of lightning to travel one mile. So if it takes nine seconds to hear the thunder, that’s almost two miles.”

“Hm,” Azula said, processing that. She was distracted a moment later, when a fork of lightning came down in the distance. “One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, four one thousand, five one thousand - ”

Thunder.

“How many groups of five fit in five?”

She snorted. “Just one.”

“One mile then,” Lu Ten said.

She was staring out at the spot of sky where the lightning had arched down from the heavens. “Do you think it hit anything?”

“Probably,” he yawned. “When it comes down like that it’s gotta hit  _ something.” _

“I wanna see something get hit by lightning.”

“Ask Grandpa for a demonstration tomorrow.”

“That’s not what I  _ mean - ” _

For an instant, the sky was cracked in two by a massive flash of light, so bright that in that split second the entire courtyard could be seen clear as day. Lu Ten saw Azula’s face, lit up in awe as she gaped upwards. Then it was over, and the world plunged back into the dark of night.

The thunderclap was immediate and deafening.

_ “Whoa,” _ Azula breathed when it was over.

“No time between  _ that _ lightning and thunder,” Lu Ten laughed. “It’s right on top of us.”

“Do you think it’ll hit anything?” Azula asked, excited.

Lu Ten shrugged. “I hope not. That would be dangerous.”

“But we’re Firebenders.”

“And that’s wild lightning. You don’t go walking on lava for fun, do you?”

“No.”

“Exactly.”

Azula leaned back against him. “I want to make lightning.”

“I’m sure you will, someday,” Lu Ten said. Maybe sooner than usual, even. Azula had taken to firebending lessons like a turtleduck to water, and her instructors and family members alike were astonished at how quickly she learned.  _ Prodigy, _ some people had started to whisper, with knowing looks towards Fire Lord Azulon. Grandpa was a prodigy himself, and Azula had been named for him. Perhaps it’d been precognition, or maybe Azula had been blessed by the spirits as a reward for the honor shown to her grandfather.

Either way, it made Uncle Ozai happy. The man practically preened whenever someone complimented Azula’s skills, already advanced past what was normal for a child her age. Lu Ten hoped Azula’s gift helped Uncle Ozai forge a connection with her, finally figure out how to relate to his own kid. The man was still hopelessly distant when it came to Zuko. How ironic, Lu Ten thought, that Ozai lived right here in the palace with his children and never seemed to know what to do with them, while Lu Ten’s father had spent much of Lu Ten’s childhood out on campaign and  _ still _ managed to forge a tight-knit bond with his son.

“I’m gonna make the  _ best _ lightning,” Azula declared. She was still staring up at the clouds, entranced, but her eyelids were drooping.

Lu Ten pulled her into his lap so he could tuck her up against his chest. “You’ll have to work very hard for that,” he said, “but I’m sure you can do it.”

“I’ll be the best Firebender ever,” she yawned.

Lu Ten smiled and wrapped his arms around her. “You’re gonna be the fiercest little general. You and Zuko both.”

“And we’ll help you win the war?”

There were only ten years until the comet returned. She would be fifteen, one year shy of legal adulthood. Hopefully the plans they were setting in motion around Ba Sing Se would win the war before that, but if the Fire Nation had to use the power of the comet to end it once and for all, and if everyone was needed to help strike the final blow...well. “Of course you will.” He ran a hand over the top of her head.

She smiled and sighed and watched the storm out the window, her eyes slowly closing. Lu Ten briefly considered moving them back to his bed, but...he was tired, he didn’t want to jolt her back to alertness, the window seat was comfortable enough, and now that he thought about it his eyes were already closed... 

He didn’t bother getting up.

The lightning flashes were far away now, the thunder distant rumbles, and the sound of the raindrops hitting the courtyard flagstones were a constant, steady patter that lulled both prince and princess to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> My god they're precious and I don't often write purely fluffy things like this so you're welcome, lol. Thanks for reading! Kudos and comments are super appreciated!
> 
> The lightning-thunder-counting is totally a thing and if you didn't know that then I apologize for your childhood and its lack of cool older cousins. Basically if you count the seconds between lightning and thunder and divide it by five, you get the number of miles away the lightning was cuz that's how long it took the sound of thunder to travel to your location.
> 
> I kinda figure there are no glass windows in the Fire Nation, just a thing I thought of while writing this cuz the image of rain on the windowpanes is so natural to me but then I was like "Wait..." There's no air conditioning in the Avatarverse and you really need that island breeze to be able to pass through easily to keep cool. Does this make things easier for assassins? Probably, and that's why you get guards stationed everywhere to relieve Azulon's paranoia, lol. RIP to the brave men and women who're keeping watch in a downpour.
> 
> Regarding Lu Ten's relationship with his cousins - listen, I do not mind children, I like to think I can handle children, however, I was a teenager by the time my first cousins were born, and after over a decade of my life wishing I had a bunch of cousins to play with like my friends, suddenly just having...babies around was kind of...underwhelming. They were FINE they were just...small and gurgly and had few ways for me to interact with them, and I'd already had three little sisters so I was kind of over the baby stage. SO imagine my SURPRISE AND DELIGHT when the kids finally started talking and having discernible personalities and interests and then one day I was suddenly holding a full-on conversation about Transformers with a five-year-old and we were both contributing to and invested in what we were talking about and I realized "Oh my god I love these children."
> 
> So that's kind of the personal life experience I pour into Lu Ten's relationship with his cousins in my headcanon - he loves them, spends time with them, doesn't quite know what to DO with them, and then suddenly they're talking and he's like OH THANK AGNI I CAN FINALLY GET TO KNOW YOU. XD


End file.
